History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.440

v2.c24.s1.440

Kalāpagrāma, are endowed with great yogic powers, will revive the kṣatriya race when the kṛta age will start again after the present kali age comes to an end and that some kṣatriyas exist on the earth like seed even in the kali age. Vāyu (vol. I. 32. 39-40), Matsya (273. 56-58) have similar verses. Relying on such passages some medieval writers stated that there were no kṣatriyas in their times. The Śuddhitattva923a of Raghunandana (p. 268) after quoting the Viṣṇupurāṇa IV. 23. 4 and Manu X. 43 declares that kṣatriyas existed till Mahānandi, that the so-called kṣatriyas of his day were śūdras and that similarly there were no vaiśyas also. In the Śūdra-Kamalākara occurs this verse 'The varṇas are brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras, the first three being twice-born; all these exist in the several yugas; but in the kali age only the first and the last remain'. Nāgeśabhaṭṭa (first half of 18th century923b) in his Vrātyatāprāyaścittanirṇaya (Chaukhamba Series) examines all the relevant Purāṇa passages and states as his conclusion that real kṣatriyas do not exist and so those, in whose families no upanayana had been performed for ten or twenty generations, are not kṣatriyas even though they rule over kingdoms and no upanayana can be performed for such kings. It must be stated that such views, though held by some rigidly orthodox writers of extreme views, were not shared by most writers. All the smṛtis speak of the duties of the four varṇas even in the kali age. Parāśara-smṛti which is said to be the smṛti *par excellence* for the kali age (as stated in I. 24) does so. Almost all nibandhakāras (authors of digests and commentaries) discuss the privileges and duties of all varṇas. The author of the Mitākṣarā, who is rightly described as the best of all nibandhakāras, nowhere says that kṣatriyas do not exist in the kali age. Numerous kings claimed to be descended from the Sun and the Moon. Hemādri in his Caturvargacintāmaṇi states that his patron was a scion of Somavaṁśa (vide H. Dh. vol. I p. 356 for quotations). The princes of Rajputana and Central India claimed to have sprung from the Agnikuṇḍa on Mount Abu, viz. of the four clans of Chohan, Parmar (or Paramāra), Solanki (or Cālukya), Paḍihar (or Pratīhāra). Vide Tod's Rajasthan (Madras ed. of 1873) vol. I chap. VII pp. 82 ff. This theory of the Agnikulas is at least as old as 1000 A. D., since it is referred to in several inscriptions of the 11th century A. D. Vide the Vasantagadh Inscription of Paramāra Pūrṇapāla dated *saṁ.* 1099 (1042-43 A. D.) in E. I. vol. IX p. 10 and the inscription of Cāmuṇḍarāja dated *saṁ.* 1136 (1079-1080 A. D.) in E. I. vol. XIV. p. 295.